The Most Expensive Gift

In a Bible study session, the leader was digging into the Crucifixion. As they were going through the event, the leader asked, "Do you understand? Do you understand this Crucifixion?" They all nodded yes. But she wanted more, so the leader asked, "Do you really understand the meaning of the Cross for you and for me?" To which one of the students replied, "Why are you trying to make it so hard? It just means that God will do almost anything for us." That is a beautiful answer. "God will do almost anything for us" -- even the death of His own Son. We would be hard pressed to come up with a better interpretation of the Crucifixion. Good as it is, however, we need to complete it by saying that God pays an exorbitant price in order that you and I may be set free. This incalculable price is paid in order that we will be free to be who God intended us to be; in order that we will be free to experience the fullness of God that is within us; in order that we will be free from the terrible bondage in which many of us are living every day of our lives. You know it’s true. Many of us are not free. Maybe we are not in an actual jail, but still we are not free either. For most of us perhaps, first and foremost among the chains that bind us is our unwillingness to forgive and forget. Think about that. A reasonable person would agree with me. You are reasonable, aren’t you? The story is told of a man who had been living under a terrible burden of guilt for many years. He had done something reprehensible which no one else knew about and he was convinced that he was beyond all hope of forgiveness. One day he met a woman who was something of a mystic. She claimed to have visions in which Christ appeared and spoke to her. Seeking to test her claim, the man said to her, "You say that you are able to speak directly with Christ in your visions. I have a secret which no one else on earth knows. The next time you are in conversation with Christ please ask him what sin I committed years ago that has destroyed my peace of soul." The mystic said that she would gladly ask Christ the question. Several days later, the two met as agreed. Immediately the man asked, "Did you visit with Christ in a vision?" "Yes." "And did you ask him what terrible sin I committed years ago?" "Yes." "Tell me quickly, what did Christ say?" "He said, 'I don't remember.'" If ever anyone had reason to be bitter and unforgiving, surely it was Jesus in the last week of his life. In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see Jesus agonizing over his imminent physical death. Think for a moment! The jubilant Palm Sunday crowd had turned into a lynch mob before the week was over. And nowhere in the Gospel record is there a sign that one single person in the crowd spoke up for Jesus when he was arrested. As a matter of record, only the Governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate found Jesus to be an innocent man. Next time you think about gift, remember the greatest gift.